Twice Lucky: Divergence
by Evilclone
Summary: There is a Chinese curse which says, 'May he live in interesting times', these times are definitely interesting, well no one said it was going to be an easy, besides it wouldn't be fun if it was too easy...
1. Introduction

A new chapter in Xander's saga, and with a new beta posting should be a lot quicker. Many thanks to my last beta Erin for helping me with the story.

You know we're fallin' to zero  
Hurtin' much more than it did before  
I'm always playing the hero  
Cleaning your mess as you walk out the door

I'm counting things'll change now  
Taking it back where it all began  
Don't like this merry-go-round  
Gotta believe, believe we can

Rogue Traders


	2. Welcome to the Jungle baby

Welcome to the jungle  
We got fun 'n' games  
We got everything you want  
Honey we know the names  
We are the people that can find  
Whatever you may need  
If you got the money honey  
We got your disease

Twice Lucky

Divergence

Chapter 1: Welcome to Jungle baby

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What to do, what to do…

So many nests to take out and so little time, he'd done a scouting of the area and had already found three nests and had taken care of them, it was a simple matter of dropping a bag full of the garlic bombs Willow and Ted had fashioned and then throw them in.

One of them, had been Club Sunday, well wasn't Sunday the Lords day of rest? It wasn't Xander's, no sir, he smashed in the front door, threw in the garlic bombs and watched what happened.

No more girls would be missing from this college. He walked through the mess and wrinkled his nose at the stench, picked through the belongings but found nothing of importance.

He poured some petrol he'd found earlier that day, poured it over the chairs, couches and beds, walked up the stairs, lit a match and chucked it in.

He took one last glance at the condemned frat house as it lit up with flames and smiled.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

It was easier to use Ted's, Giles's, Ethan's and the Watchers Councils funds to acquire a new house closer to the College than letting Buffy live on campus. This way, rather than splitting the group up, they kept close together and there would be none of the friction Buffy had the time before. It also meant that they wouldn't get any more questions about where they obtained certain things. Xander bought another smaller house for him, Willow and the girls to use, w here he kept the majority of weapons. That way when Travers finally arrived he wouldn't see anything.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Giles didn't know quite what to think, he looked up at Joyce who beamed happily that he'd taken an interest at her mask and then looked down at said mask and cringed.

"Joyce, do you have any idea what this thing is?"

"No, it's an African mask I bought, I thought it would look nice." Giles sighed and turned around to Illyria, who narrowed its blue eyes on it, with one fast move the demon whipped it out of Giles's hands and dropped it on the floor.

"Hey!"

Illyria looked up and at Joyce, who fell quiet under the demons stare.

"It is evil…" With that said, the blue skinned demon slammed a foot down on it and crushed the mask. A spirit swirled upwards, yelling and cursing before dissipating into nothingness. Illyria twitched and moved away from it, taking up her routine of walking around the house, picking up objects, staring at them and then putting them down.

Joyce opened her mouth and closed it a few times, looking rather like a gold fish, before sighing and continuing with the unpacking.

"Well it was a good thought…"

Giles chuckled and lent a hand, more to see if she'd bought anything else that could be considered dangerous, than to actually help.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Xander had originally planned on a tour of America, like the time before, but decided that it would be better to stay close to home. This way he could continue gathering supplies and monitor the group's progress. There would time for tours later on.

Xander wore a mask this time, Willow was in the process of designing a new one which would have ears resembling a bat. When she was done, he was looking to have a cape, but that would be a while yet. For the moment he resembled a ninja as he skulked through the campus grounds. He stopped mid run, lifted up his head and listened.

He spotted the group, jumped up into a sturdy tree and simply waited and watched them as they made their way through the forest. He leapt down out of the branches and quietly hit the ground, and without any more preamble followed the group.

When they had done their rounds, the group made their way back to campus with Xander in tow. None of them even knew they were being followed.

It was time for Xander to have some fun.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Some time before

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

Angel was silent for a long moment, before sighing and nodding. "Yes I'm sure, I've thought of nothing but Buffy for the last year, and the cravings."

"Almost got so bad you nearly fucked her…"

Angel winced, "I wouldn't have put it that crudely, but essentially yes."

Xander smiled and looked him over, and nodded. "Very well," he slid over a small folder, "This is a list of contacts, people and resources, use them, take Cordellia and Spike with you, they'll be useful."

The vampire's eyes widened as he took the folder from him, he opened it to the first page to see it all neatly outlined. With a smirk he flipped open the first page.

"Why am I," Angel said as he looked up, he stopped, and noticed for the first time that Xander was gone without trace. He hadn't even heard him leave… which was surprising considering a Vampire's hearing was not just good, but very good. "Not Surprised."

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Now

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"Are you sure about this?"

"You know," Xander said with an annoyed growl, "You ask me that every time I get a plan in motion."

"Its true," Ethan said with a smirk, "But I worry."

"Ethan old boy," Xander said with his best British accent, "Is that a conscious you're getting?"

The Chaos Mage groaned loudly and threw the shield at him, Xander caught it in mid air and chuckled, looked it over and tutted, "not really my style."

"Still I can't wait to see Maggie Walsh's face," Ethan said with a Ripper like smile.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Some time later

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"What the fuck is it?"

Graham had his P90 pointed at the blinding light that had just lit up the entire area, Riley adjusted his night vision to normal mode just in time so that he could see what was going on. He blinked twice as he could've sworn that he saw the Captain America silhouette. The being, the, whatever it was, moved blindingly fast, far quicker than any normal human being.

It leapt into the air and landed in between the group, moved around quickly, slamming its shield into Graham and knocking him backwards. Riley heard the other members of the group let out their own yelps of surprise and pain.

He managed to get up in time to see Forrest battling it out with the Captain. He couldn't believe it, the two were swinging kicks, punches and he was certain that Forrest had actually tried to head butt him.

Eventually though, the Cap won out, striking Forrest with a lucky punch in the torso.

Forrest grunted and doubled over, the Captain used this to his advantaged and pushed the dark skinned operative backwards. Captain America seemed to sense he was being watched, turned around and threw, yes threw, his shield with all his strength at Riley. It was fortunate that he'd found the strength to move quickly out of the way, otherwise he would've lost his head.

The shield imbedded itself into a tree and when Riley managed to pull himself up off the ground, he noticed that the Captain was gone.

Boy that was going to make for an interesting debriefing.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Xander left the stunned and now slightly disabled group lying on the floor. He could only imagine what Maggie Walsh's face was going to be like when she examined the shield, only to find out that it was plastic.

She was going to blow a gastric.

He laughed as he showered the fight off and went to bed for the next big day…


	3. Choices

Twice Lucky

Divergence

Chapter 2: Choices

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… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Choices…He'd been thinking about the choices since summer, in fact all over summer. He'd gone to teachers he knew before the collapse of Sunnydale in the other timeline and had chatted to them. They had all said the same thing, he was a grade A student, even his maths and science towards the end had, had a massive leap. None of them had put it down to magic, or even his enhancements, they had all simply stated that he was fulfilling his potential. One teacher had even suggested business school.

'Crap', he'd never really thought of it that way, he had a clean slate, he could go to college and take up whatever courses he wanted.

Still, the idea of actually flying a fighter jet appealed to him somewhat. He couldn't wait to see Riley's face when he turned up with a uniform.

He looked down at his list and grinned.

English – Four years, including a college-prep course on composition.  
Mathematics – Four years, including algebra, geometry, trig and calculus.  
Basic Sciences – Four years, including chemistry, physics, computers and additional courses in the sciences.  
Social Science – Two years including history, economics and government.  
Foreign Language – Two years of a foreign language.

That was easy enough to obtain, but the foreign language one was going to be somewhat difficult. Sure he had two languages already, he knew Russian and Japanese from Soldier boy and Korean from Lamont, but it was going to look awkward if he suddenly appeared in class with full blown knowledge of the language and culture.

Xander went to all the appropriate classes and spoke with the teachers, he was still deciding on what language to choose when he thought of German. He had a little bit of knowledge on it and could speak a few words, so it would at least, not look to obvious. Besides, he decided that he wanted to learn something new on his own. Maybe he'd learn Czech…

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Sometime later

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Doctor Rodney McKay had heard of a lot of things in his time, seen a lot of things that would make most men whimper and cry (he would know, he whimpered at them), and done things that most people couldn't even comprehend. And yet this left him absolutely stunned.

The new group to arrive from Earth via the Deadelus was an interesting lot. There were the academics, Willow for one, Fred…what kind of female name is that, it was a man's name! Even Wesley was able to handle himself in some of the conversations.

And then there were the brawns, he'd met Faith, blushed and mumbled a hello, it wasn't his fault he wasn't good around women… met Xander Harris and had actually decided he liked him, which was strange as most of the time, Rodney didn't like the military type.

The kid was able to speak in several different languages, Rodney had heard Xander chatting to one of the Russian scientists about something unimportant and had decided to step in, he challenged Xander in Russian and had had a good long conversation with him, like he thought before it was surprising.

He'd then, a day later heard Xander talking a different language, German of all languages, and even Korean. Rodney simply could not believe it. The kid was some sort of genius in speaking tongues. He, much to Rodney's surprise was also able to keep up with him and the scientists when talking about astrophysics.

"Hey," Rodney looked up from the salad he'd been pushing around his plate and grinned, Sheppard took a seat next to him. "You looked lost in thought."

"I was thinking…"

"Oh?"

Rodney nodded, pushed some of the lettuce onto his fork and took a mouthful. "Yeah," he said threw a chew, swallowed and wiped his mouth with a napkin. "They're a good bunch this new lot."

"Yeah," John nodded, "I saw Xander the other day with Wesley and Faith," he shook his head, "the three of them were fighting with Ronan and Teyla."

"Wow…"

"Yeah," John said with a grin, "I think I saw Ronan break out in a sweat."

Rodney chuckled, that was hard to imagine, the tough as nails Ronan Dex being brought down by a mere Earther.

"I don't think the Wraith are going to know what hit them," John and Rodney chuckled.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Now

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

He'd signed up for his courses and went to the introductions, he'd even bumped into Riley on the way to one of the courses and had started chatting to him.

"You're a freshman here?" Riley said with a confused blink, he grinned, "Sorry it was just, you seem to fit in so well."

Xander shrugged his shoulders as the two made their way to the canteen, while he'd never actually gone to college (much to his later regret) the timeline before, he'd been around it enough times to know where most of the important stuff was.

"I'm a people's person…"

Riley chuckled as he put stuff on his tray, "You're not a repo man are you?"

Xander grinned and shook his head, "No I have aspirations in life thanks."

"Oh?"

They sat down at an empty table, Xander started unwrapping his sandwich.

"Yeah I was thinking of joining the air force."

Riley showed interest and nodded, "That's quite a career choice, what do you want to do?"

"Always wanted to fly a fighter jet."

Riley nodded as he forked his salad, "Its not all Tom Cruise you know."

Xander grinned as Riley mirrored an earlier thought, "I know that, my father was a vet."

"Oh, Vietnam?"

Xander nodded quietly.

"Poor guy, my father was a marine too," they toasted their respective cans of coke by clinking them together.

Xander looked up from his meal to see Riley looking at him oddly, "What?"

"Well I was wondering," Xander arched a questioning eyebrow. "Well I saw you chatting to that blonde girl, you know the one with the blue eyes."

"Buffy Summers," Xander said with a knowing smirk, "Yup, free single and looking for love."

Riley's eyebrows went up.

"I can set you up if you like?"

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Sometime later

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

The great city ship to put it simply, was stunning, at first Xander had been at a loss for words when he and the group of people joining him had stepped down the landing ramp of Earths finest warship the Deadelus.

"Quite something isn't it."

Xander had grinned and nodded at the tall, powerfully built man known as Colonel Stephen Caldwell, the ships 'captain'.

"Yeah I don't think bloody massive quite covers it."

Stephen chuckled and nodded at one his best F302 pilots, it was a pity the Deadelus was loosing him to Atlantis, but now that he had been brought up to speed with things he understood the necessity for it, Atlantis needed heroes, and Xander was as good as any.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Sometime earlier

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"You did this for me?"

They were standing in the Bronze, and it was the night before Spike, Angel and Cordellia were due to leave town. Wesley had opted to stay in Sunnydale for a while as he liked working with the team and what he had there. Xander had arranged this poetry night in the night club as a way of saying thanks to Spike for helping out.

"It's a different world you know," Xander said, while casting a glance at the former vengeance demon, Anya looked sad and pissed off at the same time. "People don't take the piss any more, creativity is respected."

"Fair enough mate," Spike slapped the kid on the back and made his way through the crowd of people who were all watching the two, he jumped up onto the stage and went to the microphone, tapped it once and winced when it whined. The crowd chuckled.

"Encore!"

Spike flipped his finger at the crowd and they rippled with laughter again.

He opened his mouth at the waiting crowd, closed it again and sighed. "My soul is wrapped in harsh repose,"

The crowd went silent.

"Midnight descends in raven-coloured clothes,  
But soft... behold!  
A sunlight beam"

Spike paused…

"Butting a swath of glimmering gleam,  
My heart expands,  
'tis grown a bulge in it,  
Inspired by your beauty"

He heard a sniffle in the group of students, and smirked.

"Effulgent."

Someone let out a whoop…

"For Cecily," he said into the microphone. "Next the follies of me mum."


	4. Thoughts

Twice Lucky

Divergence

Chapter 4: Thoughts

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Halloween had been a lot different this time, Giles and Ethan had thought through the proper incantations and had banished the _little_ 'Fear' demon that was going to cause problems. Surprisingly, once he'd found the right texts, gotten the ingredients it had taken upwards of half an hour max.

They'd actually had quite an enjoyable Halloween, he'd gone dressed as James Bond like he had the time before and when questioned about it, he simply stated that should he get transformed into his costume he wanted to be in something that meant he could be able to provide useful help.

"And what better way of doing that than by being Bond," he waggled both his eyebrows, "James Bond."

Buffy had stuck out her tongue and cited clichéness. Laughing the group had gone to the frat house and enjoyed drinks and dancing most of the night. Buffy now that she had been on a date with Riley had been in a better mood than before, she was on talking terms with Xander now, and although there was a hint of coldness to it, it was at least better than being ignored. After living in a school with a bunch of super powered teenage girls, he found he'd gotten something of firewall to cattiness.

Even the vampire tradition of nothing remarkable happening on Halloween was actually kept this year, Xander did not turn into Bond and people did question why in the name of the ninth level of hell was Anya walking around in a Bunny suit.

Although, it seemed that the only other person who found her suit truly frightening, was Illyria, who, not surprisingly, got on exceedingly well with the former vengeance demon. Xander had pushed and prodded Oz in the direction of one of the other students, a singer called Veruca, who (weird name apart) also happened to be a werewolf.

"No kidding," Oz had remarked, as he'd felt an instant animal attraction. They'd sat down and had started talking about dogs, Elvis and band equipment, leaving Xander with a blank look on his face. If he could keep the other werewolf occupied, maybe he could keep her contained as well, well that was part of the plan.

Xander had been having fun winding up the Initiative operatives, he'd been attacking random groups here and there but had been mainly concentrating on Riley. So far he'd gotten them riled up, but hadn't done anything dangerous.

One of the other things that had been confusing; the Initiative itself was the myth of the Slayer, and something else that had been running around the town. A lot of the vampires that had been caught had been saying something about a Batman, Riley simply couldn't make sense of it, a trio of Slayers that were being called the Trinity and a Batman.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"Father Gabriel," the balding Priest looked terrified as the darkness wrapped around him and a man stood in front of him wearing a hat, dark clothing, a cape and a red scarf. His nose seemed long, his eyebrows grey and his eyes like two pits of darkness.

"Yes…" he started muttering.

"You think God will protect you?" The dark man demanded, "I am a messenger of God," he picked the father up by his uniform and pushed him against the wall, "Blessed is he who Shepard's the weak through the valley of darkness."

"Ezekiel 25:17."

"You know your Bible father," The dark man said with a throaty chuckle. "Your work is needed, why do you cower in your church while others fight."

"Fight what?"

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men."

"I know the Bible," the Father said with a stutter.

"Then why do you hide in the Shadows?"

"I don't."

Again the Shadow started laughing, his eyes lit up with amusement. "You hide in the darkness where the Shadow sees all, looks deep within your heart of hearts, you cannot hide from me."

"You claim to be a messenger of God?"

"Yes."

"Tell me my mission…"

The Shadow slowly let Father Gabriel down onto the ground; the man's strength, Gabriel decided was incredible. "The Shadow knows all," he held out his hand palm up, it was in a dark glove and on the palm was a small emerald ring.

"What's this?"

"A ring, your life belongs to the Shadow now," the man flinched and gently took it off his waiting palm, and slowly pushed it up his wedding finger. "When an operative comes to you and says…"

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"Mission successful," Xander said as he let Giles, Buffy's Watcher know of his presence, the older man who although he'd been expecting him jumped slightly at the sound of Xander's voice. The teen was back in normal clothes, his feet up on Giles's kitchen table and a coke in hand.

"You know I do have something called a doorbell."

Xander flashed the older man a grin as he watched Giles adjusting his glasses. Giles went into the kitchen and grabbed himself a coke as and sat down opposite Xander.

"What and miss the look on your face?" Giles frowned at Xanders comment, "Priceless."

"To quote Miss Summers, Bite me Mr Harris." Xander pulled the pop top on the coke, and took a swig. "How did it go?"

"Killed the angry spirit," Giles winced, "And saved Father Gabriel who is now in the employ of the Shadow."

"Excellent, so getting holy water shouldn't be an issue anymore."

"Nope, the Shadow scared the holiness back into the Priest."

"Oh dear," Giles muttered, "You didn't give the poor fellow a heart attack did you?"

"Nah still alive, well mostly."

The two chuckled.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Buffy and Joyce Summers had worked hard over the last day or so, they had been working to get the perfect Thanksgiving. No problems, no fights or domestics and definitely no vampires, with the exception of Angel who was always welcome.

Riley was the first to turn up, he was dressed in a suit and looked incredibly smart, his shirt looked ironed, too. Joyce opened the door and looked him up and down with an appraising smile. "Mr. Finn, a pleasure."

"Mrs. Summer," he took her hand and kissed it gently. He then offered her a bottle of expensive wine.

"Oh! My favourite, how'd you know?"

"Uh inside information," Joyce smiled knowingly, took his arm and led him through into the kitchen. Buffy looked up and beamed.

"Riley!"

"Hey Buffy, uhm, it smells good…" It did too, the smell of the chicken permeating the whole house. The chicken was doing well as so far it wasn't burnt. Joyce and Buffy hadn't been alone in this operation, Marcy and her mother had been over frequently and were helping, as were Willow, Faith and Harmony. The former cheerleader and pain in the ass, was now better at being a general people person and even bitched less. She was regulated to wash up duty while Willow and Faith helped prepare the food. The only complaint they got from Harmony was when she swore because of a broken fingernail.

"You look good," Buffy studied him with an appraising eye, "enough to eat."

"Buffy!" Joyce said loudly.

"I meant the chicken?"

Joyce frowned at her daughter knowing full well what she meant, Joyce had after all, thought the same thing when she'd opened the door. Buffy had exemplary taste in men, it was a pity Joyce didn't.

The next to arrive was Giles and sadly Jenny Calendar, who much to Joyce's annoyance was arm in arm with the teacher. Giles unhooked himself from Jenny and kissed Joyce on both cheeks before muttering something dirty in her ear, Joyce went a little red and looked around, but Buffy was deep in conversation with Riley. Giles flashed her a grin, Joyce was a little confused about this as she saw Jenny who was watching the interaction with interest. The teacher's intelligent eyes looking Joyce up and down. Jenny realising she been caught, looked Joyce in the eye, winked and licked a lip. It was such a subtle movement that she was certain that she and Giles were the only people who saw it.

Again, Joyce flushed a little.

Xander arrived in a full blown limousine, the girls all got out, even Marcy's mother was with them dressed in a pretty dress that Xander had shelled out for. Jon, Warren and Andrew were the last to turn up.

The meal went smoothly, no one had any problems, right up till the point that Andrew mentioned seeing Angel in town.


	5. The Initiative

Twice Lucky

Time for a change

Chapter 5: The Initiative

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… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"What the hell are you?"

Xander had spotted a group of vampires hovering around the old school stomping grounds and had decided to drop in and pay them a little visit. Drop being the word there. He had climbed up on one of the walls and jumped into the middle of the group, with kicks, punches and the whirling of his blade he had cut them all down to size, the startled vampires hadn't known what had hit them, unfortunately neither had Xander, as he hadn't counted on Riley's group being anywhere near the place.

Xander sighed, placed the sword back in its scabbard, the marine in charge stepped forward and Xander took off his mask. "Hey Riley."

The blonde haired former farm boy from Iowa was stunned, the moves he'd seen Xander pull off were stunning, some of the roundhouses he'd used were something Riley himself could never even contemplate using.

"Xander?" Forrest who was standing next to Riley twitched his head and looked toward his commanding officer with surprise.

"You know him?"

"Yeah," Riley said with a nod of the head, "He's been helping me in the 'dating Buffy' department."

"You're kidding?"

"Nope."

Xander chuckled at the two, and tensed when he heard someone raising their P90 at him. He looked at Riley and sighed. "So are you going to introduce me or what?"

Riley fought the urge to smile, "Sure, after seeing the way you curb stomped those vampires, we could use someone like you on our team."

"The old lady ain't gonna like that much?"

Riley shrugged, "Let's see what she says first."

They trooped back to one of the many secret entrances of the underground military compound, all the while Xander had been wondering just how long it had taken them to build up this place. The complex from what he remembered was massive, with at least an aircraft size bunker underneath. He wondered idly what Mayor Wilkins would've thought of this. Hell he wondered what the Initiative would've thought of a massive bloody snake crawling around Sunnydale. He grinned as they descended the stairs and soldiers of all ages stood watching the new group arrive. Riley had been on the radio on the way there and informed Maggie Walsh of their find and that they were bringing him to the base.

When they got to the middle of the room, he saw several tables sitting in the corner. The smell of burnt flesh lingered on his nostrils.

'Poor bastards…' Xander looked around and saw one of the rooms where Adam would be sitting and waiting to be activated. There were better ways to end life than being on an operating table and having holy water poured in your mouth.

The older blonde haired woman, dressed in a lab coat walked up to the group, eyed Xander up and down and looked at Riley. "He's a student at the college, what is he doing here?"

"Thought I'd take a stroll around, see what facilities you got here," Xander said in his best Texan accent. Maggie stopped talking and arched an eye at him.

"You think your funny kid?"

Xander smirked.

"Don' think it love," his eyes twinkled, "Know it."

"Strap him to a table," Maggie turned around and started walking off, "Let's see what he's made off."

One of the solders grabbed Xanders arm, a big mistake for the soldier. Xander twitched, grabbed the soldier by the other arm and moved so quickly the soldier didn't know what him. He was thrown on the floor with a loud crunch. Moments later Xander was in a full-blown fist fight. He didn't want to hurt them, but it seemed he had no choice in the matter.

Again Riley was surprised at Xander's speed and strength, as with one full-blown kick, which landed squarely in Riley's chest, he was thrown backwards.

There was a loud crack, loud enough to shock the entire room into silence. Suddenly, the group found themselves surrounded by people, girls, men and woman. Three girls he recognised, one of them being Buffy, who was holding a particularly large and nasty looking Scythe.

The soldiers had their weapons out and were pointing them at the group. Xander had his sword out and had it inches away from Forrest's neck.

"You know," Buffy drawled, "If anyone's going to kick his ass, its gonna be me."

Xander, despite the situation, snorted. "Keep telling yourself that Buff."

Maggie had also frozen and was staring at the girl with keen interest, Buffy spoke again, "Gee Xan, a military complex underneath Sunnydale, studying vampires and demons, isn't that…"

"Cliché"? Xander responded.

Riley choked back a laugh.

Maggie shot Riley an annoyed look and sighed. "Who the hell are you people?"

"Well I'm one of what I hear is being called the Trinity." Buffy said, Maggie breathed in quickly, "You know, one of three Slayers fighting the darkness, oh and he's being nicknamed Batman would you believe."

"I prefer Shadow."

"Keep telling yourself that Xan," Buffy flashed a grin.

"The Shadow," Riley murmured, he knew of that particular rumour as well but had put it down to paranoia.

They were finally all situated on chairs, listening as Buffy regaled one story or another. From the Master, to the Mayor, to several of spats of demons and vampires. Even Maggie was sitting in silence, listening as she was told of various moves, kicks and punches. Xander however was with Forrest who was getting his neck looked at, and was listening as the dark skinned soldier talked about the different weapons they employed in basic combat.

It was funny, while Riley sat and discreetly watched Xander he saw more soldier in him than he had seen before. The kid was a warrior, a well-hidden warrior but one nevertheless. It was freaky to think that he'd been chatting and getting quite friendly with him for months now.

It would be interesting to fight along side of him, just as long as they didn't have any more encounters with the fantastic four.

When they were done, Willow started walking some of the scientists through the weapons and body armour, EDTA, garlic in both gaseous form and coated to weapons, to boots with crosses strapped to them.

"We've been trying to find a way to weaponise sunlight but so far I haven't come up with anything yet." One of the older scientists who was taking her seriously nodded quietly.

"Maggie?"

Walsh shrugged her shoulders in defeat, "Sure go for it."

The two walked off to a separate room where a vampire was strapped to a wall, he grabbed one of the 90's and uncapped the light on top. "UV light hurts 'em bad."

To make a point he shone the light on the vampires face, burning it where it shone, the vampire let out a howl of pain. The smell of burnt meat sizzled in the room, making both of them cringe slightly.

"We've also been working on a UV bomb," he held up the little device and handed it over to Willow, he then showed her how to activate it, he handed her a pair of goggles which she then placed over her eyes and activated the bomb. It lit up the room in a flash of blinding light.

When it was done, dust floated lazily to the floor.

"Cool!" Willow squealed happily.

"We've got some other neat stuff I can show you if you like, we've even got a blaster."

Willow happily clapped her hands and grabbed Xander to show him the weapons, the scientist was happy enough to show off his designs, showing them each how they worked.

Blasters could be set to two setting, stun or fry. Xander had to admit, he was a fan of fry.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

The group had slowly departed, Xander, Giles and Riley being the last three to leave. When it was all finally over, Maggie Walsh spoke to the small group of marines, telling them exactly what she needed for the next project.


	6. Adam

Twice Lucky

Divergence

Chapter 6: Adam

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… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Adam was originally a fallen agent of the Initiative; Adam is a creation of Professor Maggie Walsh. He is part human, part demon, and part robot, and was to be the perfect organism, with the adaptability and intelligence of humans, and the strength and emotional detachment of demons. Thanks to the programming installed into Adam, he was, while 'switched off', able to remotely access the Initiatives databanks.

He knew from this that he was a fallen operative who had been tasked with protecting Maggie Walsh, he had been killed by a rouge demon. His body parts were being replaced to make him stronger, faster, more efficient and more intelligent.

It was logical.

It was the next stage in evolution; no he was the next stage in evolution. He was the three combined to make one piece of perfect.

In a nanosecond Adam had a plan formed, one that would take time to put into place as he wasn't quite aware of his bodies complete capabilities.

What he needed to do was learn, learn how far he could push his body and of the world around him. Adam decided it was time to leave the compound. It was fortunate for him that Maggie had decided to take that moment to 'switch him on'. His uranium power core fully activated and he was able to move his body, of course he was able to do that before, but as 'humans' said, he didn't want to tip his hand.

He sat up, and looked down at the small frail woman, whose brain he knew was brilliant and smiled. "Hello Adam."

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Before

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

The teams were out in force, hunting in the jungle. They were using every available man without comprising the base. It was a test of both the slayers and Xander's capabilities, and from the sound of the random giggling, the girls were enjoying every minute of it.

Riley spotted one of the girls, she'd just jumped out of a tree and had landed on a marine. The soldier hit the ground with a grunt with her on top, she slapped him playfully on the face before scrunching up her face. She heard the sound of Riley walking through the bush.

He raised his gun and fired. The pellet that was completely harmless, shot out and sped along to its target that wasn't there and imbedded itself into the tree. The Slayer had already moved and before he knew it his feet were swept from under him and he landed on his back with a gun pointed at his face. Xander who was dressed in camo like the rest of the units, he had what looked like night vision goggles, advanced ones, the likes of which he shouldn't have been able to afford.

He also had a big shit eating smile on his face.

"Hi Riley."

The Soldier smirked and grabbed the offered had, which pulled him up from the mud. "Hey Xan, good moves you got there."

"Cheers," Xander chuckled, nodded and disappeared into the darkness. If this was what they had to fight against, the Initiative was sorely outmanned, and outgunned.

"Lights!"

The SUV's lit up the entire area, the lights, like the hand of God was reaching down and touching them was blinding. Xander crawled out of the bushes with his night vision goggles in his hands and joined Riley and the group, the three girls, Buffy, Faith and Kendra walking along in tow. Faith hooked arms with Xander and grinned.

"That was fun!" Faith said enthusiastically.

Xander's stomach growled, and a couple of the marines chuckled. "Fighting makes me hungry."

Riley grinned and nodded, "We can get something to eat at the base."

"I hear they've got cake," one of the marines said with a grin.

"I like cake, cake is good." They trailed off, none of them seemed to even register that they were following Xander as easily as they followed Walsh.

Unfortunately Maggie Walsh had noticed this, and she now considered the group a threat and stood by the SUV with a silent scowl.

Hopefully Adam would solve that problem soon enough.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Now

Adam smiled and raised his arm up and studied it, and with one swift move the long sharp spear thrust out and into her chest. Maggie gagged, looked up and died.

"Mother."

The other scientists backed away from him while one of them tried to get the door open, Adam wasn't supposed to be like this, he was supposed to be under their control, when quite obviously he was not. Adam moved with blinding speed, he picked up one of them and snapped his neck as easily as he would a twig, the spear shot out and stabbed the lead scientist in the head.

"Fascinating…" He walked back to the computer and started typing, quickly he accessed the computers mainframe and looked at all the exits. With that plan formulated, he needed to actually get out.

Adam stood up and went to the door the scientist had so desperately been trying to open and ripped it open with his superior strength. Even if they had managed to get out of the room, he would've had to eliminate them, there was no way that Adam could allow someone who knew how he operated to live. Adam smiled at that irony.

The two soldiers standing guard turned around in surprise, only to have, moments later, their heads clapped together. He heard satisfying cracks and dropped their bodies to the ground. A startled yelp pulled his attention away from the corpses, a marine had spotted him and called the other soldiers out.

Adam smirked, saw an opening and bolted for it.

The Initiative didn't know what hit them, Riley was in full form trying to get things organised, but people were people, and when they got scared they got disorganised.

"Sir what are we going to do?"

"What was that thing?"

"Who are we going to call?"

"Oh God, are we under attack?"

Riley clapped his hands once and the room went silent. Every eye turned to him. "Someone get Xander Harris on the phone."

An operative nodded, ran and grabbed a phone, and then turned back to Riley who sighed. "He's probably at Giles's house."

The soldier blinked and went to open his mouth, Riley groaned and walked over to the phone and snatched it off him, punched in the numbers and waited.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

The phone went, Giles walked over and picked it up and listened. His eyes went wide, and he nodded slowly.

"Okay Riley, I understand." He then placed the phone on its holder and pulled out his mobile. He pushed the speed dial and contacted Xander.

"_Harris_."

"Xander, its Giles."

"_Go ahead_."

"The Initiative has a situation…"

There was a pause.

"_I know, Adam's escaped_."

Giles smiled.

"Of course you do." Giles sighed, "What shall we do about it?"

Another pause.

"_We can't do anything until he tips his hand, I'll need to contact Riley and tell him the truth_."

Giles frowned, "Are you sure that's wise?"

"_No, but you know what they say, fortune favours the bold_."

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"You knew this would happen, didn't you?"

Xander looked up from the T.V to see Anya standing there with a scowl on her face. His face said it all, there were reports on T.V of random attacks, people being found dissected and or gutted. At one point a small boy had been found.

Anya didn't say anything that required answering, as so far she hadn't been keyed in, but still she remained incredibly observant. But then, that was why he'd fallen for her the first time around.

He looked back at the T.V with a sullen expression on his face, "Not everyone can be saved," and promptly switched it off.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Before

Maggie Walsh had sent Buffy on a mission, supposedly it was one that would require her unique talents. She didn't trust the scientist and had seen the odd scrutinizing looks that she gave Buffy and her friends.

She was now in the sewers with her gun, her Star Wars type blaster, which she hefted with ease. The funny thing was, that although it was very futuristic the moment she had picked it up she'd known instantly how to use it.

Part of her Slaying abilities, something she was glad she had.

She felt them before she heard them, two big green and drooling beasts, she whirled around and cocked her weapon and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened…

"Well shit." Buffy said with a scowl.

Buffy bent the front of the blaster and threw it at the demon, only to watch as it bounced of the demons head.

Buffy raised her fists.

So much for being easy…


	7. Dawn of the Dead

Twice Lucky

Time for a change

Chapter 8: Dawn of the Dead

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

Dawn bounded into the living room with glee at the new present her mother had bought, she twirled around and clapped her hands happily. She was wearing a new summer dress that fit perfectly and stopped dead when she saw him, Xander, who was sitting on the couch and smiling broadly.

"Xander!" She ran into him with a full-blown hug, which he gladly returned.

"How _you_ doing Dawn patrol?"

"Ugg," she made a face, "Please, Buffy you really need to stop Xander from watching too much Friends."

Xander flashed the Slayer a grin, who rolled her eyes in mock disgust, "What, you don't think I make a good Joey?"

"You're much to smart to be Joey," Dawn protested, she blushed a little, "I was thinking Chandler."

"Ah," Xander nodded wisely, "Witty, charming with an interesting sense of humour and a cigarette addiction."

Buffy frowned.

"Yeeeah," Dawn drawled, "He's the cute one."

She caught herself and blushed again.

He chuckled. It had been several weeks now since Adam had gotten out and disappeared, he'd made no contact with anyone other than the odd dissection here and there, fortunately there had been no other human fatalities, yet. It had been just under a week since Dawn had appeared, as it was, Xander was the only one who knew who and what she was. He'd gone into deep thought over that one, meditating it over and consulting with the Hyena spirit, who had blatantly stated that it was protecting him from a very powerful world-altering spell.

Which meant Glory was also in town.

Which meant protecting Dawn at all costs, which meant that he was going to have to hunt Ben down and eliminate him as soon as possible.

He was drawn back to the present. Dawn squealed as Buffy pulled out her present for Dawn, it was her birthday after all. The younger sibling happily ripped of the paper and let out a whoop when she was given the game she wanted. Everyone had come over to celebrate, his girls, Giles and Wesley who were constantly present in the Summers household and even Illyria made an appearance.

Dawn didn't know what to make of Illyria. Sometimes she came in the appearance of a Texan woman with gentle eyes and other times she came as the blue skinned demon with the cold blue and lifeless eyes. They had had to tell her when she was old enough, about the world around her and it had scared her senseless. But, she knew she was in good company. Xander and his girlfriends all looked after her, helped her with her homework and even took her out on shopping trips.

Then, there was Buffy, her older sister who no matter what came up always had time for her. She liked that, this life that she was leading.

"Why did you not tell me," she had walked into an argument between Buffy, Xander and Illyria, it hadn't been pretty. It was then that she was told about her mother's condition, and then her tears had come. Illyria had looked pretty disgusted and had left the building without another word.

It had been two days later and Illyria had reappeared, called a family meeting and had demanded that her mother drink something from a small vial. Joyce, at Xanders urging had done so and had promptly fainted.

Illyria had told him that what she had given Joyce was a very powerful cure that would ensure Joyce's good health, she would die naturally of old age. Illyria had looked at Xander and had been clearly upset at not being included in all of the decisions and had left, although her face had held no emotion, stony cold as always, the demons body language had given it away.

Xander had sighed, and had talked to Dawn about it as her sister had taken their mother up to the bedroom. He'd explained about her sickness and that Illyria had given her something very special. Something that she normally would not have given any other human being.

That had been the best birthday present, better than any gifts they were now giving them, to know that her mother was safe and wouldn't die for a long while.

"So you like the dress?"

She blinked and looked up to see Joyce standing in the doorway with a large smile on her face, her long curls down the side of her face framing it nicely.

"Yeah mum, and I liked Buffy's and Xander's presents." It had been Willow's idea to group together and get Dawn a laptop, something which Joyce wouldn't have been able to afford.

That night Buffy had stayed at home with Dawn to watch movies, while Xander and Faith took patrol, Dawn didn't mind, it meant that she could spend time with her big sister for a change.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"Gabriel."

The heavily accented voice caught Xanders attention, and he whirled around his sword in hand. There standing in front of him was none other than Count Dracula himself. Xander winced, 'no bug eating this time or butt-monkey' he thought.

"It has been so long since last we fought."

Xander blinked in surprise.

"Say what now?"

"Ah I see you have lost your memory again," Dracula smirked, his long black hair blowing slightly in the wind as he stepped forward. "You are younger than I remember."

"Ah, okay," he didn't remember this from the last time. "Who's Gabriel?"

"A pity you do not remember, Gabriel Van Helsing, I vas looking forward to a decent fight."

'Shit.'

"Hey Xan!" Xander turned around to the sound of Faith coming out of the bushes, and then back to Dracula who had typically vanished into thin air. He groaned, that was all he needed was a master vampire running loose who thought he was Van Helsing.

"Well," Xander said with a smirk, "So much for not upsetting the timeline."

Faith gave him an odd look but shook it off as the two made their way deeper into the graveyard. Unbeknownst to them Dracula was indeed hidden in the bushes watching with keen interest.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"We got a problem."

Giles looked up from the book he had been buried in and rubbed his tired eyes, "We as in you or we as in all of us?"

"We as in all of us."

"Oh dear," Giles frowned. "Please tell me its not another apocalypse, I've rather had my fill of those for this month."

Xander chuckled and sat down. "Not quite, Dracula's in town."

Giles blinked and looked at Xander as though he was waiting for the punch line, when none was forthcoming he took a sip of his whisky. He then swirled it around in the glass and took another long mouthful before placing it back down on the table.

"So this isn't a joke then?"

"Nope."

Giles frowned again and finished off the glass, before getting up and pouring himself another one, sitting down and putting the bookmark in place and closing the book.

"How do we deal with him."

Xander sighed. He'd thought about this and had gone over the details of the last visit, it had only been by stabbing Dracula several times and 'convincing' him to leave that the Master vampire had left. A wicked plan came up.

"Illyria."

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

The blue skinned demon had located Dracula at Xander's request; she had cornered him in a local graveyard while he was watching Buffy fight a group of half-breeds. The Transylvanian vampire turned around and hissed at her.

The demon twitched, clearly unimpressed.

"Who are you?"

Illyria lowered her head, "I am Illyria God-king."

The vampire twitched his head and nodded, he edged around and watched as the demons eyes narrowed in on him like small blue targets. "Vat do you vant?"

"You must leave now."

"I do not take orders…."

The vampire hadn't finished the conversation, Illyria was a blur as she shot forward, her fist slamming hard into the vampire's chest, so hard in fact it lifted him of the ground and slammed into the dirt with enough force to knock the air out of him.

Dracula for his part felt as though a train had slammed into him, when he got himself of the ground, the demon was standing over him and lifting him up with a blue fist. "Leave now."

The vampire struggled and found itself unable to change form. The demon didn't budge and threw him again, this time he landed against a tree. He didn't wait for a second command, Dracula left as quickly as he arrived.


	8. Hasta La Vista Baby

This is a guest chapter written by James Harnett and beta'd by my new beta. Originally I was going to post this as one chapter, but it was to damn long, so I split into two, with a few minor modifications, hope James doesn't mind.

For those of you who know him as Lightening Count, may I present…

Twice Lucky

Divergence

Chapter 9: Hasta La Vista Baby

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… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"Adam, what the hell kind of demon name is that?" Buffy frowned. "It's hardly Moloch the Corruptor, or Heinrich bone breaker, or Voldemort is it?" she squinted. "I mean Adam? I'm not running in terror, in fact I'm just plain confused."

Xander grinned from behind the wheel of the car, bouncing as it was along the dirt track into the Sunnydale woods beyond the Campus. He missed these sparky conversations.

"Well he didn't pick the name himself, I mean I guess he'd have gone with something more scare-tastic."

"But Adam?"

"It was Professor Walsh." Xander said. "Blame her over active evil imagination."

"Maggie Walsh." Buffy said darkly. "I can't believe she tried to have me killed. I'm very seriously thinking about blowing off her class, and not even writing a note."

"Well let's not get too harsh here." Xander smiled thinly. "Don't do something you might regret, I mean blowing off class? Hop off the outlaw train Buff."

"Either that or I'll kill her." She shrugged. "But you think she's already dead?"

Xander nodded. "Yeah, when this Adam thing broke out of the Initiative I think it punched her ticket to hell, one way."

"So I meant to ask, how do you know this?"

"I err…tapped their comms."

"You whetted their what?" Buffy answered. "Sounds awkward and dirty."

"I used my army training to hook up to their radio frequency." Xander said. "I heard about this Adam escaping, thought we could deal with him before any trouble happens."

"So what is it, this being with the plain bread name?"

"Hard to describe." Xander winced. "Imagine Robocop mixed with Gandalf, with a hint of Predator. That's about it."

She gave him a stern look from the passenger seat. "This for real Xand?"

"Yeah, and this is where we'll find him."

He pulled the car over and opened the door, Buffy doing likewise. It was a pretty cheap car, something Xander had acquired with minimum fuss and trouble for this little expedition. The story about hacking into the initiative communications was of course a small fib, a means to disguise the true source of his information, the memories from his future self among other gifts he had been given.

"Looks like empty woods." Buffy grimaced. "You sure he's here?"

"Yeah, looks right." Xander answered, recognising the cave system near the secret back door to the Initiative. "He's around here somewhere. Just let me grab some tools."

He went to the back of the car and popped the trunk, revealing an assortment of shapes wrapped in brown wool blankets. As he fumbled for the right one Buffy took an axe from the back seat and a long bladed sword she buckled around her waist.

"I got weapons covered." She said. "I'll do all the fighting, you…"

She paused as Xander reappeared, a five-foot long machinegun cupped in his arms with a long belt of bullets dangling from its centre.

She gazed at him in surprise. "…So, you woke up this morning and became Rambo?"

Xander grinned. "I took a trip to the armoury?"

"You stole a rocket launcher from there." Buffy remembered.

"Yeah, their security still sucks, I got a whole armful of stuff."

"Xander, it's the US Army, not a Kwik-e-Mart." Buffy replied. "If you get caught with that you'll go to jail for like, a gajillion years!"

"Relax everything will be cool." He said, then froze. "Actually forget that, be tense, really tense."

She caught his gaze and looked over her shoulder, seeing a hulking shadow move out from the caves, striding powerful from darkness into the daylight of the forest.

"That doesn't look good." Buffy raised her axe.

The figure stopped and looked at them, a grotesque mix of man, machine and demon. Its flesh and muscles were mixed, several species forced into union by drugs and robotics, a pure Frankenstein monster in the classical sense remade and revised for the modern world.

"Buffy, meet Adam." Xander said, walking around the car. "Let me have first go."

She shrugged. "Let him have it."

He steadied the machine gun in his hands, dragging back the bolt with a loud click. Adam spotted him, tilting his head with interest as Xander stood in the open, gun levelled.

"Curious." The creature said in a genuinely interested tone, distorted by a slight electronic echo from his artificial voice box. "You are holding an M60E3 7.62 millimetre squad support weapon, a military issue device, yet you are not in any of the personnel records." He tilted his head the other way. "Scanning civilian records…scanning… DVLA records, Alexander LeVelle Harris, no current occupation."

"Actually I do have a job at the moment." Xander replied. "I'm here to deliver your gallon of whupass."

"I have placed no such order."

"Well…I mean… ah screw it." Xander gave him and pulled the trigger.

The gun kicked back repeatedly requiring a great deal of strength to hold it steady as he fired from the hip. It never looked this hard for Rambo, but then again Rambo wasn't firing incendiary ammunition. The fizzling streaks of tracer fire whipped into Adam, piercing and sizzling his demonic skin or bouncing in sparks off his metallic coverings. Even as the bullets fed through, discarding casings in a fountain on the far side of the gun he saw it wasn't enough, that while they penetrated his flesh his armoured skeleton beneath was protecting his vital organs from the bullet strikes.

The gun clicked empty as the belt ended, a full 250 rounds causing the barrel to glow with dull red heat and they had done only superficial damage. Actually he was wrong, they had done more. They'd pissed Adam off.

The monster leapt forward, springing across the ground and seizing the gun, snatching it away. Xander went for his side arm but with a shock of speed Adam punched him in the chest, launching the young man through the air, up and over his car to crash with a thump.

"Well that wasn't in the plan." He moaned. "Oh yeah, and Ow!"

Adam began to move again but was blocked in his path by a short and slender blonde girl.

"You are going to be very sorry you did that." She said with a cold grin. "Me and Mr Chopper here don't like it when you throw my friends around."

"I don't like it either!" Xander added from the ground behind the car. "Note to self, parachute next time."

Adam gazed with interest at Buffy. "Your threat assessment is low."

"Yeah, that's what they all say." She tossed the axe, grabbed it out of the air and swung it at Adams neck. With lightning speed he raised his hand and grabbed the blade in mid swing, stopping it an inch from his neck.

"Interesting."

With his free hand he backhanded Buffy, sending her through the air for several yards and dropping hard to the ground.

"Very interesting." He bent the axe blade double over, then threw it aside and advanced on Buffy. "Your strength is abnormal for your body mass." Adam said. "You should be almost a thousand pounds of pure muscle."

"Well thanks, I like to keep in shape." She stood. "Wait, did you say a thousand pounds?"

"Instead you appear closer to 140 pounds."

Her jaw dropped. "120 thank you!"

"You will be considerably lighter after I remove your limbs and head."

He took a swing at her, something Buffy easily dodged. As she moved she drew her sword and swung it, glancing off his back with no real damage.

"Fast too." The creation considered. "Superhuman strength and speed."

"People say my fashion sense is also superhuman." Buffy answered. "Or was that subhuman…?"

"You are the Slayer. Buffy." Adam said confidently.

"Cool, you only just woke up and you know who I am." Buffy grinned. "My reputation is safe."

"My mother told me about you, Professor Walsh as you knew her."

"Mother?" Buffy winced. "Oh that's a whole new world of creepy."

"Yes, I suppose it is." Adam shrugged, then kicked Buffy hard, knocking her back to the ground before stooping to lift her up and hurl her twenty feet.

"Hey! Trashcan man!"

Adam stopped midstride, turning to see Xander stood by the car. The young man had found a new weapon.

Xander grinned widely as he held the missile launcher to his shoulder, the green tube housing the AT4 anti tank hollow charge guided rocket. It was identical to the one that had destroyed the Judge in the previous timeline.

"I tell ya, this thing brings back memories." He chuckled as he aimed down the sights, the system armed.

Adam turned to face him, showing no sign of distress.

"I always wanted to do this."

Xander grinned as he flicked the final safety.

"Hasta la vista…baby."


	9. Two birds with one Xan

Twice Lucky

Okay so I admit I was more than a little disappointed with the lack of responses – oh well on with the story.

Twice Lucky

Divergence

Chapter 10: Two birds with one Xan

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… … … … … … … … … … … … …

He pushed the launch button and fired the projectile, the rocket burning at high speed across the short distance straight towards the stalwart demon. Before his very eyes Adam's hand snapped forward and with immense skill and computer aided precision he grabbed the missile out of thin air and held it, muscles working against the thrust of the motor.

"No way man!" Xander exclaimed. "You did not just grab the frickin' missile man! No way!"

The engine burned out with a puff of smoke and Adam examined the device, looking at it carefully.  
"Fascinating, this could indeed have harmed me."

"You grabbed it out of the air!" Xander repeated in shocked amazement. "That's just insane!"

"Indeed." Adam nodded, then pulled back his arm to throw the spent device back.

Xander reacted on instinct, reaching into the car to grab his final weapon before sprinting away, even as the missile left Adams hand and hurtled in a grey streak to the car. He threw himself flat as the vehicle erupted, enveloping the area in flame and heat. One of the doors hit the ground beside his head, burying itself half into the ground in a blistering, smouldering heat.

"Not exactly going according to plan here." He muttered, then forced himself up and grabbed the final device he had rescued from the car.

Meanwhile Buffy was also up, bruised and cut but still standing.

"Hey, I hate it when guys quit paying attention to me." She announced. "What am I? Chopped meat?"

Adam turned back. "Soon, yes." Slowly he stomped over. "You are the Slayer, you are so much more than a normal girl."

"Well thanks, and I can honestly say you are so much more than a normal man." She nodded. "Several men in fact, and demons, and a bit of a T-101 going on there."

"Your potential is so great, yet you are blinded by human morality."

"Not blinded, embraced." Buffy said. "This is what I do, what I was born to do."

"And what you will die doing." Adam shot an arm out and grabbed her throat, lifting her up. She stabbed him with her sword, putting all her strength behind it and piercing his chest, but not stopping him.

"You are one thing Slayer, and one thing only." Adam smiled. "Obsolete."

There was a loud bang and Buffy dropped to the ground choking. She glanced up to see Adam staggering backwards. Opposite him was Xander holding a massive rifle.

"Get away from her you bitch!" Xander yelled, chambering a fresh .50 calibre armour-piercing bullet in his Barrett rifle. "Yeah I know, not entirely appropriate for the situation, but when am I gonna get a chance to say it again?"

He fired again, the extremely large and fast bullet punching straight through Adam, ignoring even his heaviest armour. Adams legs buckled and he dropped to one knee. Two more rounds smashed through him, dropping him flat to the ground on his back, a look of pure surprise on his face.

Xander looked down on the paralysed monster. "About being obsolete…" He picked up a device from his pocket, an incendiary Phosphorous grenade. "…Say hi to the guys on scrapheap challenge for me, they'll be seeing you there."

He pulled the pin and jammed the grenade into Adams mouth, then ran, using his body to shield Buffy as the device went off in a cloud of intense burning material, hot enough to melt metal and make short work of Adams control circuits and neural tissue.

Xander looked back at the flaming mess.

"Ssssmoking!"

"Xander, nobody remembers that movie." Buffy said quietly.

"I remember Cam Diaz in it, yowza." He helped her up. "That looks nasty."

She rubbed her throat. "He had quite a grip."

"This is one of those hospital things." Xander said with concern.

"I'll be fine."

"Buffy, Hospital." He said firmly. "Ah, we kinda lost the car."

"Huh." Buffy grunted. "Sorry Xand, guess your insurance won't cover demon/machine hybrid missile attacks?"

"Not so much." He let her rest on his shoulder. "It's not that far, but hey, did you see him grab the missile? Wasn't that cool? And then actually throw it back?"

"Yeah, Kodak moment." She whispered. "So, hospital."

"Hospital." He agreed and began to lead her away.  
… … … … … … … … … … … … …

… … … … … … … … … … … … …  
Four hours later

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"So how is she?" Willow asked with clear concern. "Nasty bruising."

"You know Buffy, she'll be fine by next Tuesday." Xander smiled as they stood outside the room she had looking in through the door. "Plus points of being a Slayer, damn good health plan."

"I can't remember the last time I saw her so beat up." Willow remained concerned. "You sure this guy's dead?"

"Oh yeah." Xander smiled. "Very, very dead. Well more dead than he was. Like totally dead."

"So not just slightly dead then?"

"No, properly dead and incinerated for good measure." Xander said. "Did I mention the missile thing?"

"Four times." She answered plainly. "About this nuclear power core thing, why is that still worrying me?"

"We killed him just outside the Initiative, their patrols will find him and stick him in concrete or something." Xander shrugged. "They made it, they can clean up."

"Right." Willow was less than convinced.

Xander looked around the clean corridors, a thought in his head.

"You know what, when Mrs Summers arrives we should convince her to get a check up. Now, you know, early to detect stuff… early."

"Detect what stuff?"

"You know, stuff." Xander said guarded. "So they can get it early. If there is any stuff to get. Early."

"Xander, did you get hit o the head?"

"No. well yes, but trust me." He said. "Want some coffee?"

"Coffee makes me ga-ga." She stuck out her tongue. "Ice cream though…"

"On it." Xander grinned. "Back in five."

He set off down the wards with a small smile. Adam had caused a lot of trouble and destruction, killed a lot of people and set in motion events that had almost torn their group apart. None of that would happen now, thanks to a little proactive planning, the future was looking a little more rosy.

That was until he turned a corner and ran into another ghost.

Standing in front of the coffee machine he was heading for was Ben Webber, Intern Doctor of Sunnydale General and, in his spare time, alter ego of the Hell Goddess Glorificus.

"Oh, hey." Ben noticed him stood there. "I won't be a minute buddy, decisions, decisions huh?"

"Yeah, decisions." Xander said, neck deep in his own choices having being confronted with this situation. Glory was one of the hardest foes, and her plans had caused the death of Buffy. Again. In her immortal form she was all but unstoppable, but she had to manifest first, and when she was forced back into dormancy she appeared as Ben, a normal human. Glory was invincible, but Ben was not and if he was stopped, if he was killed, Glory would also be destroyed.

The problem was Ben was just a normal guy, hell he was a doctor, a good person who might not even know what he was at this stage. They still had a year until Glory was strong enough to really show up, until then Ben was technically an innocent. An innocent who held the key to the deaths of scores of people, including Buffy.

If he could stop her death, prevent her fumbled resurrection, keep her whole and human… it was one of the big reasons all this had happened, one of the things he most desperately wanted to change and preserve. He had the opportunity in his hands, but at what cost?

"Say Doc, I wonder if you could help me." Xander said, a plan forming. "My friend was brought in today, pretty bad internal injuries."

"You must mean the blonde student." Ben recalled. "Bunny?"

"Buffy, and yeah." Xander nodded. "Thing is she doesn't like Hospitals."

"Yeah, I get that too." Ben smiled warmly, making Xander scream inside.

"Well she's trying to leave, to sneak out the back."

Ben grimaced. "She can't do that, she needs to stay here and heal."

"Yeah, that's what I said but she doesn't listen." Xander shrugged. "But if a doctor told her, a young good looking ER type doctor…"

"She might find a reason to stay." Ben grinned. "We've got guidelines about patients and doctors getting too close…"

"I know, but it's just a means to an end right? Anything to get her into bed?" He paused. "So she may heal…. That's all, in bed. Healing."

"Yeah, I get it." Ben chuckled. "Okay, where is she?"

"She'll be outside by now, better follow me."

Xander walked away from the wards, down a back corridor and out towards the loading dock. He'd been here enough to know that nobody wandered through this part of the hospital, just the garbage trucks once a day. It would be deserted, out of the way and unnoticed. It was what he needed to do what he had to do.

"So she usually run around with cracked ribs?" Ben asked.

"Well not so much run, as limp and complain." Xander agreed. "But yeah, not a fan of hospitals."

He opened the outer door, held it open for Ben, then closed it behind him and let the doctor walk in front.

"Well I don't see her." He squinted at the trash cans and dumpsters. "Buffy right? Shall I call for her?"

"Wait a second." Xander looked around to make sure they were alone.

"Maybe she isn't here yet, or went a different way." Ben frowned. "Or maybe…"

He stopped in his tracks as he heard a click. "Don't turn around." Xander said flatly.

"Is that a gun you've got buddy?" Ben asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, so no sounds, no sudden moves."

"Okay, you're the boss." Ben raised his hands. "What do you want?"

Xander held the gun steady, but noticed he hadn't fired. He urged himself to do it, to end it quick before doubt overcame him, but still he hesitated.

"Is it money? I…I don't have my wallet on me."

"No, not money."

"If you want drugs I can't help you, I don't have access to the pharmacy or store rooms, I'm sorry but I can't…"

"Not drugs doc, this is something personal."

"Personal?" Ben exclaimed. "I only just met you! I don't even know your name!"

"Yeah, but it seems like we met years ago to me." Xander replied. "I know your secret, I know what you are deep inside there."

"Look, you got the wrong guy. I'm just a doctor!"

"No, no you aren't." He placed the gun right against Ben's head.

"Please, I can help you!" Ben pleaded. "Don't do this!"

Xander struggled with the trigger, his hand slick with sweat. He knew what was coming, he knew it, it had to be done.

"Sorry man, needs of the many, you know."

"Don't!"

"Glory, I know you can hear me." Xander said. "When you get back to hell, tell them Xander sent you."

"What?" Ben shouted. "No, wait!"

He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, not able to see what he had done. He heard the thump of the body and just turned away, eyes still shut and not opening them until he was facing the door again.  
When he looked into the world again the first thing he saw was the twin green eyes of his friend.

"Buffy…." Words failed him.

"Xander." She said in equal shock. "What the hell…?"

"It…it isn't what it looks like."

"Oh? Because it looks like you just executed the doctor who treated me this morning!"

"He wasn't a doctor Buffy, he wasn't human."

"Looks human to me." She said. "Does he look human to you?"

"Listen Buffy…"

"Does he look human to you?" she demanded forcefully. "Look at him Xander, look at him!"  
He forced himself to turn to the body, a growing pool of blood flowing from his wound.

"Yeah, he looks human." Xander said. "He was human, but he's going to change."

"He's going to change? Into what? A six foot blonde evil beauty Queen?"

Xander blinked. "Wow, good guess."

"He was a human and you killed him." Buffy accused. "That was murder, you Xander, my friend, you are a murderer!"

"It's not murder!" He protested. "He was going to kill people, your sister, he was going to kill you!"

"My sister? What are you talking about?" Buffy frowned. "Xander, you need help, you've been like this a lot."

"I can explain." Xander said. "One year from now he will start changing into a hell god called Glory."

"Not anymore." Buffy said flatly.

"Yeah, yeah that's right, I stopped it from happening."

"By murdering him?"

"By destroying the human vessel and saving lives. One life to save many."

"Guess that's alright then." She scoffed. "So who made you judge, jury and executioner?"

"You don't know what I know Buffy, trust me."

"Trust you?" She said. "Like he trusted you?" She pointed at Ben.

"That isn't fair Buffy."

"No, I'll tell you what isn't fair." Buffy snapped back. "Getting a bullet in the end for no damn reason! What happened to you Xander? Where are you?"

He shook his head. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." He began to walk past.

"No." She grabbed his arm. "You tell me what is going on."

"Just let go!" He yanked his arm away causing Buffy to stumble. On instinct she lashed out, her hand catching Xander across the face.

She gathered herself and paused. "Xander, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that."

He wiped a line of blood from his cheek. "What the hell was I thinking coming back here?"

"Xander, I don't know…"

"Why did I think I could do this, make it all better?" He chuckled grimly. "Just turning out worse."

"Xander, just listen."

"Go lay down Buff, take it easy." He turned. "I have to go."

"Go where?"

"Just go." He said sombrely. "Take care Buff, don't look for me."

"Xander?" She called after him. "Xander!"

He did not look back, he couldn't, he was too filled with pain and loathing to let her see into his eyes. He couldn't see why it had all gone so wrong, but all he did know was that it had broken him inside more than anything else had done. He had tried to make it better, and he had. It just cost him his friends to do it. For their lives, for her life, it was a price worth paying even if it broke his heart.


End file.
